1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a painting machine suitable for use with powder paint.
2. Description of the Related Art
In painting, one and the same paint is generally painted over a surface of an object to be painted. However, a demand for design with remarkable personality has recently been increased. In such design, elaborate plans have been devised in the coloring. A gradation painting in which gradation is continuously changed is one of techniques for such design. In the conventional gradation painting, a plurality of colors of liquid paints are prepared, and the paints are applied one by one while a location of each paint is being shifted.
In the above-described gradation painting, a plurality of painting machines are provided according to a plurality of the liquid paints, or a single painting machine is provided and the paints are changed from one to another. In the former method, a plurality of the painting machines disadvantageously increase equipment costs. In the latter, the painting efficiency is low since painting is interrupted during changes of colors. Furthermore, in both methods, after one liquid paint has been applied, the paint needs to be dried until the subsequent liquid paint is applied. As a result, painting cannot continuously executed such that the painting efficiency is low.
Another method of gradation painting has been proposed in which a plurality of liquid paints would be mixed into a liquid paint of a desired color. The mixed liquid paint is applied while a compounding ratio of the paint is changed so that the color of the applied paint is gradually changed. However, when the compounding ratio of the liquid paint is changed for toning, the liquid paint before a change in the compounding ratio is mixed with the liquid paint after a change in the compounding ratio has been changed, whereupon a color obtained by mixing differs from a color of an actually applied paint with high possibility. More specifically, since a liquid paint has a high fluidity, it is difficult to mix liquid paints with a plurality of different colors together and to control the mixture to obtain a desired color.